The Fifty-Strong Company
by Halcyon Kaleidoscope
Summary: A group of friends who haven't been in close contact for years are suddenly forced to bond when circumstance throws them out of their world and into that of Middle-Earth, where they run into the Company at the beginning of their quest for Erebor. (Warning: Many OCs)


Let me start off by saying that I want desperately to find out who invented physics as we know it today, march right up to them, and give them one big, stinking middle finger and then run away before they can catch me. It's because of this person that we are now forced to study physics in everyday high schools, and that most modern universities want you to at least have a basic understanding of physics, especially if you're going into a complicated field such as medicine. _Shudder_. But now I realize that many of you who are reading this do not and will not understand the complications brought to society by year twelve physics, so let me break it down for you. First, it's boring. Second, it sucks. Third, if you are not a science person, you have basically a 99.9% chance of failing. My record mark of 89.7% in this class astounded me. I didn't understand it.

Oh, hi. My name's Jocelyn Singer and for a moment I forgot I was actually writing this down instead of just thinking it. That happens to me a lot. Sorry about that. I will now try to continue keeping in mind that this is supposed to be a story and not just a place for me to rant about things I hate when it comes to my old world. That place has a lot of things wrong with it. Physics is just one of them.

However, I wasn't completely getting off-track, because physics is how this story begins. Or, at least, _where_ it begins.

It was a fine Friday afternoon towards the end of March, and I was sitting in my senior physics class. (That's grade/year twelve for any of you not from America). And for those of you anywhere else *cough cough* the place I'm writing this from *cough cough*, I won't bother explaining. The American educational system is much too complicated for even me to understand, and certainly not to anyone in this world, or the next. Oh, sorry, getting off-topic again.

As I was saying, I was sitting in my senior physics class, watching another one of those Crash Course videos that my physics teacher loves (she thinks that the two main guys, John and Hank Green, are hilarious, even though neither of them teaches physics). I was trying my best to take notes from the video, but it wasn't going very well since the actual teacher was talking so fast that it was hard to pay attention. Finally, I gave up and decided to put in my earbuds, and copy notes from my faithful friend Lauren, who was in the class with me, later.

I actually wasn't supposed to be using my phone. I was heading on a trip after school (today was the last day of school before spring break. I was flying out to visit my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my younger cousins, who lived in California), and I wanted to save my phone battery for the plane. It was a long flight to L.A. from Boston, where I lived, and I didn't want to be bored on the flight there (even though it was more than likely that sleep was the only thing I would do).

The video finally finished, and our teacher assigned us some problems in the textbook. I began scribbling down the answers on a separate sheet of paper, glancing back and forth from my textbook to the paper to make sure I was writing everything down correctly. Most of the problems were formulas, which were easy enough so long as you remembered which formula you used to solve each problem. The next time I glanced down to my textbook, I noticed that the chair I sat on was very soft, but also sort of prickly. Maybe some of the foam had come out of the seat again. That happened more often than you would expect.

However, the next time I looked up, I realized that definitely wasn't the case. Instead of sitting in my twelfth-grade physics class, I was sitting in the middle of a large meadow. Grass and flowers were growing around me. The sky was almost blindingly blue, and sitting around me, with various textbooks and notebooks in their laps, were several people I knew well.

* * *

 _Hello, my friends! I see you've stumbled upon "The Fifty-Strong Company" and have decided upon this story as your next "Hobbit" fanfiction. I'm glad. I'm quite proud of it. However, there are several things to note._

 _As you may have gathered from the title, there will be quite a lot of OCs. I'm going to try and make this story as long as I can in order to fully explain each one and give them their own time to shine. As we get to know them, I'll ask you which ones you want to see next. I may start doing a list of which OCs haven't made an appearance yet. I'm going to introduce them slowly so I don't attack you with all of these OCs._

 _Also, the length of these chapters will vary. Sometimes, they'll be short and to the point, and sometimes, they'll be long and drawn-out so that I can have more interaction between the characters. Bear with me._

 _Finally, I want to thank you if you've decided at this point that you want to stick around for the story. I'm excited to see what you all think._

 _All my love,  
China_


End file.
